Children freed as Morrison plans to push for TPVs

Sarah Whyte, Ben Doherty, Lisa Cox

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is trying again to restore temporary protection visas after announcing 150 children would be removed from immigration detention centres and placed on bridging visas in the community.

The use of temporary visas (TPVs), which have been voted down twice in the Senate, would allow asylum seekers to have work rights, but not allow permanent residency in Australia.

Cross benchers confirmed that Mr Morrison had scheduled meetings with them this week.

The Palmer United Party's leader, Clive Palmer, will meet Mr Morrison on Wednesday.

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Senator Bob Day said he was ''fully supportive'' of Mr Morrison and the temporary protection visas. ''I admire the way Scott Morrison is going about this very difficult task and fully support him,'' he said.

The Liberal Democratic Party's David Leyonhjelm said he was reserving his position, but said ''I'm probably inclined to support TPVs as it allows asylum seekers to work. The current position does not allow them to work.''

Senators Nick Xenophon, John Madigan and Jacqui Lambie said they would reserve their position until they had seen the exact detail of the proposed visas.

The 150 children to be released are under age 10 and arrived in Australia before July 19 last year.

The announcement comes days before Mr Morrison will appear before the final hearing of the Australian Human Rights Commission on Friday.

Refugee advocates and lawyers cautiously welcomed the announcement on Tuesday but questioned why the department was not releasing children from offshore detention, which has been acknowledged as significantly affecting children's mental health.

Social justice law firm Maurice Blackburn said the government needed to expand its announcement to include all children and babies in detention, including those locked in offshore centres and babies born in mainland detention after July 19 last year.

''We welcome that the federal government has now recognised that detention is no place for babies and children,'' principal lawyer Jacob Varghese said.

''However, it's disappointing that the announcement explicitly excludes those children who have arrived in Australia after July 19, 2013.''

Mr Varghese said the government had overlooked the fact that children experienced serious trauma in detention irrespective of when they arrived in Australia.

Amnesty International said the government's plan to release up to 150 children was an admission children were harmed by being kept in detention.

The organisation said while the release of any children from detention was welcome, all children in the government's care should be released.

"We support the government's admission that mandatory detention is costly and damaging," Dr Graham Thorn, Refugee Co-ordinator for Amnesty International, said. "Given this has been acknowledged by the government, it must also release kids from detention on Nauru and Christmas Island and expand this announcement to include children over the age of 10."